Death's Oath / Blight Occultist Build Guide (PoE Synthesis 3.6)

Introduction

Death's Oath provides a degeneration aura that deals Chaos damage to all nearby enemies. This skill is great for clearing and in combination with a strong single target skill like Blight can result in a balanced character. By using Chaos Inoculation you counter the downside of the Body Armour, which is indeed taking 450 Chaos damage per second for 3 seconds on kill. The Death Aura’s damage is scaled by socketing support gems in the Body Armour, which affects the skill itself; you only need to 6-Socket the chest and colour it to basically have a 7-Link Death Aura.

For this character we choose the Occultist Ascendancy class, simply because it has great synergy with Energy Shield and Chaos/Curse builds in general. This results in a very tanky character that has great clear speed and respectable single target damage potential.

Build Summary

The main problem you will encounter with the build is off-colouring your Death's Oath. For the perfect gem setup you need 3 Blue 2 Green 1 Red, which is essentially 5 off-colours. Besides that, other gear pieces can be very budget-friendly early on, with the option to invest more currency later on.

An Efficient Way to off-colour Your Body Armour

There is a more efficient/cheaper way to off-colour items instead of just spamming Chromatic Orbs. For example, if your Death's Oath has 2 sockets, 1 green and 1 blue, you can put on 3 sockets via the crafting bench. If the new socket that appeared is the one you need, you can proceed by putting a 4th socket. If it failed, you can simply use the crafting bench to put back the 2 sockets, which will remain 1 green and 1 blue. This method is not cheap in the long run, but is more efficient than using Chromatic Orbs and hoping you will get the 5 off-colours you need.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Cons

Playstyle

Offensively, when clearing, the build is basically a running simulator. All you need to do is just pass by monster packs and they will die via the Death Aura in combination with strong curses and Profane Bloom. Shield Charge is a very efficient way to move around; that movement skill will boost your clear speed by a great amount. When encountering a tougher foe, you can place your Wither totems and start channelling your Blight upon them, which will result in a respectable single target damage.

Defensively, you need to keep a few things in mind. As for every Chaos Inoculation character, utility flasks are a great form of defense, having good uptime on them will ensure you can take more damage without dying. The additional Energy Shield regeneration from Zealot’ Oath, Wicked Ward, and Vile Bastion will keep you safe most of the time. Dealing with Porcupines is problematic, which is where CWDT Immortal Call becomes useful.

For playstyle, Shield Charge into packs of monsters and they will die in a second. You will be able to take some hits here and there, since you will most likely have great Energy Shield pool and reliable amount of Energy Shield Recharge/Regeneration.

Ascendancy, Passive tree, Bandits and Pantheons

Ascendancy (Witch – Occultist)

Wicked Ward

Vile Bastion

Profane Bloom

Malediction

Wicked Ward provides a lot of flat Energy Shield and is a great way to sustain your Energy Shield pool.

Vile Bastion provides stun immunity when you have Energy Shield, which is mandatory for every Energy Shield-based build. The additional way of sustaining your Energy Shield pool and the flat 150 amount is also a great addition.

Profane Bloom allows you to clear content much more smoothly as long as there is a curse applied on enemies.

Malediction increases your maximum curses by one and improves their effectiveness even further.

Passive tree

With this endgame passive skill tree you will have enough damage and survivability to tackle the hardest content. For keystone notables, we pick Chaos Inoculation and Zealot’s Oath. Besides them, we pick all the efficient Chaos Damage, Energy Shield, and Curse passive nodes. Keep in mind you can also respec few Energy Shield nodes and spec into Whispers of Doom if you want to squeeze in a 3rd Curse.

Bandits

Considering the build does not benefit from helping any specific bandit we choose to kill them all.

Pantheons

Major:Soul of Solaris is what suits the build best. If something kills the build it is most likely going to be one shot mechanic, this major god power helps to prevent that from happening.

Minor:Soul of Aberath is very useful for every Chaos Inoculation build. Stepping on Burning ground stops your Energy Shield Recharge, which can be very annoying at times. With this pantheon you do not worry about it at all. Other minor gods can be chosen based on personal preference.

Pantheon powers can be upgraded by using Divine Vessel in the Map Device while you are activating the particular Map that contains the boss you need. Once you’ve killed the boss and captured his soul, you need to deliver the vessel to Sin in Oriath.

Gems

Death's Oath aura skill is used for clearing, and it should ideally be supported by 6 gems; for single target you should use Blight. For mobility, use Shield Charge to move around and Flame Dash to jump over map terrain. Vaal Discipline will provide a good amount of flat Energy Shield; its Vaal version should be used in sticky situations. Curses can be run on Blasphemy Support in order to make enemies weaker and take more damage.

For all the gem links we provide below, keep in mind that we list the gems in order of priority (starting from the top left, going to the right on each row of the links), meaning that if you lack the required number of sockets to fit all the gems, the first ones to drop are the ones at the bottom (with the bottom right being the last). Also note that in-game, as long as the sockets are linked, it makes no difference at all what order the gems are placed in.

Vaal Blight (4-Link)

Flame Dash (3-Link)

Flame Dash will give you the additional mobility you need in order to jump over certain terrain and dodge lethal game mechanics. It will also provide the Arcane Surge buff with every cast. Make sure your Arcane Surge Support gem is locked at low level.

Shield Charge (2-Link)

Other Gems

Vaal Discipline should be your defensive aura. You should be socket-starved at this point, but if you still have a free socket you can make use of Phase Run.

Gearing

Capping your elemental resistances is essential and it should always be your top priority in any build; it should be the first thing you do when gearing up a character. Obtaining a 6-link, while very powerful and certainly recommended, can potentially be very expensive (requiring an average of 1500 Orbs of Fusing, obviously depending on your luck); as such, this should not really be a goal for you while gearing up, and you should instead settle for a 5-link until you have enough resources.

Helmet

Heretic's Veil will allow you to run stronger Curses with reduced mana reservation. A well-rolled rare Energy Shield Helmet will also do the work. For labyrinth enchant, look for Temporal Chains or Enfeeble Curse effectiveness. The rare affix priority is:

Elemental resistances (until capped)

Energy Shield (at least 250)

Intelligence (at least 40)

Nearby Enemies have -9% to Cold Resistance (Frigid Fossil)

Body Armour

The main idea of the build is using Death's Oath, which is irreplaceable.

Gloves

Allelopathy gives you a level 22 Blight, which is essentially a 5 or even a 6-Link if you consider the two extra levels; the downside is that you will not have the Vaal version of the skill. You can also use well rolled pair of Gloves instead. The rare affix priority is:

Elemental resistances (until capped)

Energy Shield (at least 100)

Boots

Steppan Eard and Sin Trek are great unique choices. Well rolled boots should outclass them when you are ready to invest currency. For labyrinth enchant, look for Life&Mana Regeneration, Attack&Cast Speed or Movement Speed. The rare affix priority is:

Amulet

Solstice Vigil is a very good Amulet, although it can be expensive and you should not worry about it too much, since we do not really invest into Curses. Prior to it, use a rare Amulet instead. The rare affix priority is:

Elemental resistances (until capped)

Energy Shield

% increased Energy Shield

Attributes (Dexterity, Strength)

Rings

Dream Fragments will allow you to not worry about Chill and Freeze effects, which can otherwise be lethal to Low Life and Chaos Inoculation characters. Besides that, simply look for a well rolled rare Ring. The rare affix priority is:

Elemental resistances (until capped)

Energy Shield

% Faster start of Energy Shield recharge (crafted via crafting bench)

Attributes (Dexterity, Strength)

Weapon

A well rolled rare Wand is best in slot when it comes to damage output, although it will disable your ability to use Shield Charge. Breath of the Council provides a lot of Chaos damage. Other unique weapons like Brightbeak can be used for maximum mobility. The rare affix priority is:

% to Non-Ailment Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier

% increased Damage when on Full Life (Pristine Fossil)

% increased Chaos Damage

Shield

A well-rolled rare Shield is best in slot. You can try to roll one by yourself, use Dense Fossils on a Titanium Spirit Shield iLvl 86. The rare affix priority is:

Elemental resistances (until capped)

Energy Shield (preferably 300+)

Flasks

Playing a Chaos Inoculation build allows you to use only utility flasks. Quicksilver flask is a good addition to your mobility, it should be rolled with additional Movement Speed. Stibnite flask creates a smoke cloud, which blinds nearby enemies, it should be rolled with Bleeding immunity. Basalt flask provides 15% physical damage reduction; it should be rolled with Burning immunity. Sulphur flask has a great duration, this is why it should be rolled with Curse immunity. Witchfire Brew can be used for the great amount of damage over time it provides. Rumi's Concoction can be used for the additional Armour and Block Chance it provides.

Leveling Trees

Useful Leveling Unique Items

As you begin a new character, there are few unique items that can boost your power exponentially. Tabula Rasa allows you to have a 6-Linked skill as early as you get the gems. Wanderlust gives a decent movement speed, which will make your leveling that much more efficient. Goldrim provides a lot of elemental resistances, this will let you worry less about gearing when approaching certain Act encounters.

If you are a new player (or if this is your first character for the league), then note that obtaining these items will be very difficult, if not impossible. They are rare drops, which you can otherwise only acquire if you have saved up currency, so do not focus on them too much, and instead simply look for items that match the affix priorities listed in the gearing section above.

Gem Progression

Using Tabula Rasa will allow you to have 6-Link gem setups early on, which is why we show such examples below. If you cannot get Tabula Rasa (or another item with a 6-Link), then simply prioritize the first gems in each link provided below.

In order to acquire gems that are not available to your class as a quest reward, simply ask a friend to buy them off vendors for you, or buy them yourself from Sioasa in The Library in Act III Library.